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The government has decided that security money submitted by rice mill owners will be forfeited for failing to supply the agreed quantity of aman rice to the buffer stock as per agreements between the Department of Food and the millers.
The Directorate General of Food on Monday sent letters to the regional controllers of food and asked them to confiscate the security money of rice mill owners who have failed to supply the agreed amount of rice to the government storage.
The rice mill owners have to submit 2 per cent of the value of the agreed amount of rice as security money to the Directorate General of Food.
‘The aman procurement programme ended on March 15 and we have sent letters to the regional controllers of food on Monday asking them to confiscate the security money of rice mill owners who have failed to supply the agreed amount of rice to the government storage as per the rules of the procurement agreement,’ an official of the Directorate General of Food told New Age on Monday.
He also said that there was scope for stern action against the rice mill owners for not supplying the agreed amount of rice to the government but considering the volatile situation on the market, the directorate had decided on minimal punishment for the millers.
The government in October 2020 announced that it would procure 6.5 lakh tonnes of aman rice (6 lakh tonnes of boiled and 0.5 lakh tonnes of non-boiled atap rice) at Tk 37 a kilogram by February 28, 2021.
After commencement of procurement on November 15, 2020, the rice mill owners demanded to increase the price of rice to Tk 41 a kg as the market price of the staple went up.
Against the backdrop of the rice price hike on the local market, most of the millers declined to supply rice to the government storage at Tk 37 a kilogram.
Later, the food ministry extended the deadline for the procurement till March 15 due to poor collection from the mill owners.
At the end of the procurement period, the government had only achieved 10 per cent of its aman rice procurement target with 75,000 tonnes.
The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute in a report in August 2020 said that there would be more than 55 lakh tonnes of surplus rice after meeting local demand at the end of November in that year.
Despite the BRRI prediction of 55 lakh tonnes of surplus rice at the end of November, the government in December 2020 decided to slash the duty on rice import and opened import of the staple to the private sector businesses to keep the supply and price stable on the local market.
The prices of rice have remained high in the city markets in the past one year.
The medium quality variety was selling for Tk 52-58 a kg while the coarse variety was selling for Tk 44-48 a kg.
The standard variety of Miniket rice was selling for Tk 62-65 a kg and the fine variety for Tk 67-70 a kg.
Najirshail rice was selling for Tk 70-72 a kg in the city.
